Tag Archives: mini-albums

I will begin by adding some printables that I made last week, before I got sidetracked by bookmaking.

I think looking at the PDF on my monitor, the text looks fuzzy. I’ve printed them to test for myself and they are actually fine. There are strips for a 6×4 photo (along the 6″ or 4″ edge) and the 4″ inch ones also fit a 3×4 inch photo or filler card. There are some 3″ ones too. Just little label-maker style text strips that you might find useful. Grab them here.

Now continuing the bookmaking adventure, I did try the rectangular labels. Not a total fail but not a total success either. First, an annoyance. I was quite pleased with the paper booklet that came as a gift with Crafts Beautiful. Cute patterns, mostly, double-sided and a nice weight for the map folds, not too bulky.

Then I opened it. WTF?

Printed right on the paper! DOH. Careful placement of the dies just barely worked

Some of the edges look a little nibbled. The real problem is that there is a formula for doing the map fold on a rectangle. Width – Height / 2 (width of paper across minus the height of the paper divided by 2) and that number is where you would mark for your diagonal score lines. But because of the shaped edges I was struggling to get it right. Technically that is 9 1/2 wide minus 6 high = 3 1/2 divided by 2 = 1 3/4 inches. But every time I did it, it seemed to fold just slightly differently. And sometimes the folds had to be adjusted so the finished unit had neat edges.

I found doing one side perfectly then adjusting the other so the points matched, worked best. And making a template for the point to fold the side in to helped as well.

The construction is pretty much the same, although I made the covers from the biggest size (same as the pages) then the inner cardstock dividers from the next size down. It made for an interesting book.

Go back to the previous posts here and here for more detail on the map-fold books. This post talks about folding directional papers.

I am madly folding pop-up boxes, from my better designed .svg, to finish off the handful of ATCs before Wednesday. Bank holiday tomorrow and we may actually get out for the day, so doing laundry too. Blech. After spending the entire day disassembling DS’s Stompa bed OMG! what a job) and filing a mountain of paperwork, and prepping an enormous amount of meat for the BBQ (enough to last the week for sure) and to populate the new freezer, I could use a day out….

I’ve already explained the map fold, so this is more to save yo ruining a piece of paper yo want to use by making a wrong fold. Firstly, look at how hugely different the labels die cut can be folded.

I suppose you could make a case for both versions being useful, but the one on the right (in the bottom photo, left in the top one) is the one that offers the most useable space, I think. That is the one I will explain. You can make the other version by just switching the bump and point folds. I trust you can identify a bump and a point….

1. Begin by folding the piece in half, two bumps together.

then fold the other two bumps together, keeping the mountain folds on the same side

2. With the mountain fold on the inside, fold in half, matching the points.

Matching the mountain folds of the point-to-point fold, collapse the unit. You will end up with this:

3. Fold in the sides, keeping the top of the fold as level as you can, leaving just a smidge of a gap in the middle

and fold the reverse side to match.

4. This is the tricky reverse-the-fold bit.

Unfold each fold, and reverse the centre fold so the bump is inside.

5. Done.

The trick with paper that has an actual directions, that needs to be seen right side up, is to orient the paper correctly to begin with.

Make sure the single point to point fold goes top to bottom

It only looks wrong – the flat (unscored) areas are the “pages” where the unit is stuck inside the book base.

I am going to add the PDF of the shaped areas, without the poem, as it is more useful and no one really expressed any interest in having the with-text version.

You can easily create the sized text blocks and print them then stick the cut out bits over the test and print again.

Have fun! You know, I have a set of rectangular brackets as well – I wonder….

and sew together with a 5-hole pamphlet stitch. This is the image I go back to over and over again when I forget!

That is the basis for all of the books. The inserts for THIS one begin with not a square, like normal, not a circle, like my previous variation, but with a large bracket, cut with the Spellbinders Grand Nestabilities, Grand Labels One.

To add the pages, stick one side of the folded unit to the left (or right) page.

Add adhesive to the other side – I usually don’t cover the whole face bit focus on the centre line and the straight bits on the sides

Fold over the next page, making sure the corners are lined up, and press to stick.

Ta dah!

You can close the book with a simple ribbon or cord tie, like I did the previous sample

or add a two-button wrap, or any other closure you fancy.

In the next post I will talk about folding the pages from the label – there are a few tricks to it, especially with directional paper – and share show I added the text. I should be able to share that as a PDF so you can print and cut, rather than taking the time it took ME to set it all up. Here’s a sneaky peek:

The file looks like this:

I do also have a sheet with the shapes, but blank, so you can add your own text. The print looks like this:

and the page looks like this!

I’ll interject here that I know not everyone is going to have these big labels. So if you want to see the printable file for a circle page or a square page, comment and let me know. It’s a bit of effort but I think I can do it when I return if there is interest. I may even go ahead and do What is a Girl? (also by Alan Beck) as well as I do have one of each!

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So the bookmaking group I am on (pretty darn nearly the only thing that ever drives me to log in to Facebook) had a challenge for a Turkish Map Fold book. You may recall I reposted quite an old PDF of instructions that had disappeared from the net. I’ve always like this fold, and had a bit of a play with it. The book was cute enough, but I had to make another one so I could improve the construction. As this is going to be VERY photo intense I’ll just show you the bare bones – a three-folds pamphlet with a flap.

The Turkish map folds are stuck two together and then stuck between each section. I’ll do another post about the construction but today I want to explain the HUNGARIAN map fold, a variation on this one, and my circular variation on that.

There is a great post here with the basic fold. That is for a square piece. And don’t be fooled by the video that may pop up – it’s for the Turkish fold, not the Hungarian one. Although to be fair it is only one additional diagonal that differentiates the two, and by sticking the units so one piece is flat, mine really ends up being more Turkish than Hungarian LOL! But orienting the text is easier with the additional diagonal, I think.

Let me show you the finished book first.

I would say e.e. cummings is my favourite poet and this one of my favourite poems. This is what the it looks like opened.

but without the inserts. Unlike the Turkish one from yesterday, this one has only ONE insert between each section. The inserts are heavier weight than the graph paper so two would have made the book VERY thick.

I’ll be showing you folding specifically for the placement of the text as well as folding a “diagonal” on a circle the only thing you need to know that the original linked page doesn’t cover.

1. I printed the text across the middle of pink graph paper.

Fold the circle in half bottom to top, across the text. Use the lines of text to make sure the fold is straight across

2. Open and fold, again with the text on the outside, in half side to side.

Flip it over. It should look like this:

3. Fold the diagonals by matching the fold lines. This is the only tricky fold.

4. Fold the second diagonal by matching the top and bottom fold lines of the first diagonal

5. Collapse the piece. It should want to collapse, if you’ve done the folds right.

Note the orientation of the text. You want the flat area to be the text area. Once collapsed it will look like this:

6. Mark each unit at the same point – can you see the tiny dots?

then fold in the side to meet the point.

7. This sounds tricky but it isn’t. REVERSE the folds so those triangle on the top switch to being INSIDE the unit. Open them

and push on that middle fold to push it inward

Re-crease the folds. It will change from the left image to the right one.

And THAT is the circular Hungarian Map Fold. These inserts are just smaller units than the cardstock ones and the fit inside perfectly. I didn’t go to any extraordinary lengths to get the units in exact proportion, I just made sure the marking and fold-in sides were similar, and that was good enough for them to nest nicely. I did stick them only in the very centre, which I think would help accommodate slight variations

and yet they collapse fine.

I experimented with a number of circle sizes and they all seem to nest nicely.

It would make a nice card too, just one fold.

I think it’s just a pretty little book. I also think the flat areas that hold the text could easily hold photos and you could add journaling or other text to the smaller folded areas by the print/cut/stick method, or hand write it if yo prefer the circles open up relatively flat. Well, dang. Now I have to make a photo one too. Argh. Maybe I’ll photo that for a step-by step for the construction…

{sigh}

And I can do the straight Turkish fold on a circle and see if it really is the same (minus the extra diagonal) and if it matters.

Jeez. I am so out of practice for these tutorial sorts of posts. I’ll try to be more concise for the next one, just need to get my groove back.

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Remember a few weeks back I was working on a mini made from a cardboard box? Well, I’m not done with it yet but am closing in on it!

I had planned on calling it Brother in a Box but I just could not shake the association in my head of “in the box” feeling like “in a casket” – bizarre, I know, but once something like that gets IN to my head I can’t get it out. I still wanted the BOX part and had to go with what has to be the most OBVIOUS title, Jack in the Box.

I had been saving this cereal box, with the intention of covering it and using it as a min-book housing and here was the chance.

You can see the mini-book fits it perfectly. I am also dithering about the title – on the book? on the BOX? on both? the SAME title on both??

Doh!

I think it will have a button and loop closure – but not sorted that out either. Love the paper – WRMK Nonsense. Has to be one of my all time favourite paper pads ever. So bold and colourful and playful, and a great mix of boyish and girlish colours, blues and greens and pinks and oranges, with yellow and white as well. It’s yummy.

With luck I’ll finish it maybe over the weekend. Sadly my crop has been cancelled (well, to be fair it was out of schedule due to the Newbury show last weekend, our usual slot) so I won’t be able to finish it there. When at home, so many things just get in the way and keep me from focusing on a single task – which is why I have so many UFOs in my room. {wink}

Have a great weekend. DD is due home this afternoon so it’ll be fun to have her back! Of course that might ALSO keep me from finishing, but it’ll be worth it.

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I am happy with the final version of the mini-book, with input on the real-life viewing at my crop so I am calling this DONE done.

I promise you won’t have to look at it any more!

I got totally sidetracked by some origami “corners” – what a palaver! Someone on a bookmaking group I am part of posted a photo of a photo cube held together by these corners. Good lord they were hard to track down! I started with the photo, Googled it to death till I found instructions, then saw someone in the book group had posted a link to an old HGTV tutorial. I remembered it as soon as I saw the photo, having looked at in waaaaay back and been annoyed at the poor quality of the instructions. Found a couple of references to videos for that project, but they seem to have been removed. I went BACK to the instructions, which comes up in a preview on Google Books but only page two of the instructions. Finally figured it out and ….

OK so you might comment that my folding is not the best – although I would argue that my folding is actually OK but the stupid wonky trimmers I own can’t cut a perfect square so I am starting with a flaw and it can only ever get worse from there. The point is I eventually figured out what those tiny photos actually told me to do and had success in the end.

And at the crop I got about 80% thru another mini-album idea I had. DD is always rolling her eyes and making out like she is really unhappy that DS is coming home. I don’t for one minute believe she really feels that way. But given her issues, I though making a simple mini book where I can add tags or journaling blocks with HER words about her brother, in HER handwriting, might serve as a nice reminder. I decided to use ALL of the mostly not very good photos from the few I snapped before he left. There were a LOT of good photos of him and lots of not very good photos of DD. But that isn’t the point – although it MIGHT convince her to stop mugging for the camera and actually smile nicely a little more often. It’s built on “pages” cut from an old pizza box (scrap supplies, not one that ever had pizza in it!) and is nice and chunky – probably bind with book rings.

Using what is left of a WRMK paper pad (Nonsense) I kept the pages simple and the photos big. The whole thing should fit in a smaller sized pizza box, which is good, cause the name I began with was Brother in a Box.

I have one more photo of the two of them that I missed printing somehow (or I think I do!) and will try to get DD to write our some thoughts n the photos to add and complete. It may not work to reminder her how much she really does love having DS around, but it’s worth a go!

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…but I thought it might crystallize it in my mind and as you have been so helpful with your opinions I figure it’s only fair to share.

I worked thru a number of options for the colour of the photo. The blue was felt by many to be too cold. I do like it, don’t get me wrong, but it wasn’t a difficult thing to try a few more options. Seeing them all side-by-side I thought might help me really SEE which one I preferred.

What that shows is (clockwise from the top left) standard sepia in PSE, antique effect in iPhoto, standard B&W in PSE, and Sepia effect in iPhoto.

Now, the antique version matches most closely the tone of the Tim Holtz papers, the pumice stone option rather than the blue.

It could be slightly warmer but overall it is my favourite, I think.

The B&W version is OK too, although I think it has less definition – the Convert to B&W in PSE is a but of a sledgehammer, IYKWIM. I think you see that most clearly in the folds and creases of GFs jacket.

And the other two sepia versions are overall maybe too warm. But not the iPhoto sepia holds the same definition

and the PSE sepia is less so:

I still like all the words, but then I like text and think more is better 99% of the time LOL! But I’ve a lot of time invested in this mini and I am not willing to rush the decision just to have it done. I may take it with me to my crop tomorrow and see what people think seeing it IRL, but I am pretty sure it will be DONE done by Monday.

Cheers to all who voted and commented, either here or on PollDaddy – while I am never one to do something just because other people like it, I am certainly not so dim that I can’t agree to look at suggestions and see if they really are an improvement. A few people did say that, at the end of the day, it’s MY book and I need only please myself, but it is helpful to know WHY they suggest a different version, then to see it in action. So thanks for that. I promise I WILL move on from this…soon….

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I did finish the cover of the mini, sort of. I finished it three times! Not really – but I did play around with three options and can’t make up my mind which I like better. It’s been a while since I did a poll so I thought this might be a good way to collect some info about what fresh eyes think looks better.

To begin with, I took the photo and altered it in Photoshop Elements. It was pretty much two simple clicks and a few sliders. First I did Enhance > Convert to Black and White

Then I clicked Enhance > Adjust Color> Color Variations and Increase Blue to the highlights. Wish I had played around more with the GREEN to get it slightly more of a turquoise shade, but then it might have blended into the background a little too much.

Options One Although I do use a few circle elements, I’m just not sure that this many dots work. Some times I like it, some times I just think for it to work I would have to go back and add circles to every page to tie it all together:

Options Two I originally thought The 3 STAGES of Jack but then I thought playing on The Three Ages of Man (painting, by Titian, actually in the Scottish Gallery, so that is another tie-in, since DS is living in Scotland at the moment) worked better so went with that. But space was tight, and really I should have decided first then stuck stuff down, but…

Option Three I like spelling numbers out, but then I thought that the number might be best. The die I used didn’t have numbers on it so I opted to trim the lower-case m to make something a bit like a 3.

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Here are the last section pages from that mini-album. Love how it turned out.

In three sections:

You can see it’s quite a chubby book but still contained.

Ooh, check out that curly perm and Deirdre glasses!

Only the cover left to do and I am dithering about what to do with it. I know I want a couple of fat eyelets and a tie to hold it closed but not sure what photos (if any) to use. Not going to rush the decision but will add a shot when I am done.

Two final bits of info – first, the entire essay Children are Like Kites:

Children Are Like Kites

You spend a lifetime trying to get them off the ground.
You run with them until you are both breathless.
They crash. They hit the rooftop.
You patch and comfort, adjust and teach.
You watch them lifted by the wind and assure them that
someday, they will fly.
Finally, they are airborne;
They need more string and you keep letting it out;
But with each twist of the ball of twine,
There is a sadness that goes with joy.
The kite becomes more distant and you know it won’t be long before that
beautiful creature will snap the lifeline that binds you two together and
will soar, free and alone.
Only then do you know that you did your job

and second, that tee-shirt. If you live in the UK and watch TV, you may find you “know” Ugly Duckling – the song, Just a Little Samba was used in the Visa/Usain Bolt advert. You can watch the video on YouTube.